Three Things To Do After Installing Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a pretty slick and fast browser that is out in the wild today. Although it hasn’t captured a big market share, I bet a lot of people will begin using it the day Google Chrome makes it easier for developers to make add-ons.

Although Google Chrome is radical in many aspects, it still comes with a few annoyances that you should disable or remove, and here’s how you can do that:

#1. Anonymize Your Installation With Unchrome

Every copy of Google Chrome that you download has a unique user ID associated with it and who knows, it could be used to track your usage habits and identify you later. Your first task after downloading and installing Google Chrome should be to remove this unique user ID.

It’s not a Herculean task, really. Just download a nifty tool called UnChrome from here, run the program and click Remove Unique ID now. Make sure Google Chrome is not running when you start UnChrome.

#2. Disable Auto Suggestions

Google Chrome seemingly tracks all that you type in the address bar and suggest you web pages and other things. People who are very much concerned about their privacy should turn off this auto suggest feature immediately after downloading Google Chrome.

Just click on the Customize icon in the right most corner of the address bar and go to options. Uncheck the option that says Use a suggestion service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar. You’re done.

#3. Disable the GoogleUpdate.exe Service

When you install Google Chrome, a background service called GoogleUpdate.exe is installed as well. This Google Update service allows in updating Google Chrome from the background without any user intervention. Although it doesn’t consume huge resources, you can still consider disabling the service if you’re on a limited bandwidth connection.

You can’t simply delete the Google Update entry from msconfig and move on it’ll still be running if you remove it from there. There’s a quick guide on how to remove/disable Google Update.exe in box XP and Vista, which you can read here.

Do you have any other tips on beating Google Chrome’s annoyances? Share them in the comments.

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Keith Dsouza

I am the editor-in-chief and owner of Techie Buzz. I love coding and have contributed to several open source projects in the past. You can know more about me and my projects by visiting my Personal Website.I am also a social networking enthusiast and can be found active on twitter, you can follow Keith on twitter @keithdsouza. You can click on my name to visit my Google+ profile. View all posts by Keith Dsouza